A Book of Conquest The Chachnama and Muslim Origins in South Asia

(Chris Devlin) #1
THE HALF SMILE 149

In this chapter, I have shown that the putative conquest narrative,
read instead as political theory, can offer us a gendered ethical subject
who opens up the political world that surrounded the tales of con-
querors of Sind's territories. In Chachnama, elite women exemplify
its political theory-they articulate how to be just. The Brahmin
women directly condemn the political corruption of the Muslim ca-
liph, and the text recognizes their ethics as appropr,iate. This dialogic
world of Chachnama was turned into an origins narrative by British
colonial scribes and historians. The richness of the text disappeared
under the weight of explaining the conquest of India by Islam, and the
ethics and political theory enacted by women became simply "ro-
mantic" bits that could be discarded. The making of the origins narra-
tive is the focus of the next chapter.

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